Method and system for providing incentives to members of a social network

ABSTRACT

A social network server computer forms a social network including a primary member linked to a plurality of secondary members, each of whom provides a member profile. A network profile is generated based on an analysis of the member profiles. A social network server computer then determines a relative value of the social network with respect to a merchant by analyzing the associated network profile, and offers a merchant incentive to the primary member of the network as a function of the determined relative value. In a second embodiment, a merchant computer associated with a merchant determines a relative value of the social network with respect to a merchant by analyzing the network profile, and offers a merchant incentive to the primary member of the network as a function of the determined relative value. The merchant incentives may be also offered to the secondary members of the associated social network.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates to reward and incentives systems, and inparticular to a method and system for generating incentives based on anaggregate analysis of the members of a social network and providingthose incentives to the members for use at participating merchants.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Social networking is a paradigm in which groups of members are definedwherein the members interact with each other in desired ways. Typicallymembers of a social network communicate electronically via a socialnetworking service such as FACEBOOK or TWITTER. Members may share imagesand videos, and may have interactive chat sessions with messaging toselect members of their social network.

Since members of social networks often have common interests andsocioeconomic status, it is desired to be able to utilize the vastamounts of information available from those members in order to marketvarious products and services. Social networking services that arecurrently implemented often gather information from their members in asurreptitious manner whereby the members do not even know that theirinformation is being used, or that their activities are being tracked,etc. It is therefore desired to be able to obtain information about themembers on a voluntary basis. To do this, it is desired to providemembers of social networks with incentives for providing theirinformation and allowing use of that information on a voluntary basis.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Provided is method of and system for operating a rewards-based socialnetwork. A social network server computer forms a social network thatincludes a plurality of members, which include a primary member linkedto a plurality of secondary members. Each of the members of the socialnetwork registers with the social network server computer and provides amember profile that has information associated with the member. Thesocial network server computer generates a network profile based on ananalysis of the member profiles. In a first embodiment, the socialnetwork server computer then determines a relative value of the socialnetwork with respect to a merchant by analyzing the associated networkprofile, and offers a merchant incentive to the primary member of thenetwork as a function of the determined relative value of the associatedsocial network. In a second embodiment, a merchant computer associatedwith a merchant determines a relative value of the social network withrespect to the merchant by analyzing the network profile, and offers amerchant incentive to the primary member of the network as a function ofthe determined relative value of the associated social network. Ineither case, the merchant incentives may be also offered to thesecondary members of the associated social network. The social networkmay be formed by integrating with an existing social network such asFACEBOOK or TWITTER. Each of the member profiles may have personalinformation of the member such as but not limited to income, age,location, occupation, shopping habits, and/or prior transaction history.In addition, each of the member profiles may include information onreward programs with which the member is affiliated. The network profilemay be based on an average of the member profiles, an aggregate of themember profiles, and/or a comparison with profiles of non-members of thesocial network. Optionally, the relative value of the network may bedetermined with respect to a merchant by analyzing the network profileand a merchant profile associated with the merchant.

The network profile may be provided to a third party in exchange forcompensation from the third party, and at least a portion of thatcompensation may then be paid to the primary member of the socialnetwork in exchange for use of the network profile. Further optionally,at least another portion of the compensation may be paid to one or moresecondary members of the social network in exchange for use of thenetwork profile.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a first preferred embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a second preferred embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the operation of the preferred embodiments ofthe invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be describedwith respect to the drawing figures. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of afirst preferred embodiment of the invention. Interrelated socialnetworks 104 are shown with various members A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, Jand K. Only eleven members are shown for illustrative purposes, althoughit is contemplated that the number of members that may be part of thesocial networks 104 is essentially unlimited. Social networks areconstructs as well known the art that provide a communication paradigmamongst its various members. Social networks are groups of persons thatinteract with each other in some format(s), typically over an electroniccommunications network such as the Internet. Various social networkingservices exist, which facilitate interactions amongst the variousconstituent members that form the social networks. Examples ofwell-known existing social networking services include FACEBOOK,TWITTER, MYSPACE, AND GOOGLE+. These services enable its members todefine various social networks in which the members choose to link with(or friend) each other to share information, images, videos, emails,chat, etc. In this embodiment, the members A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, Jand K shown within the dotted oval of FIG. 1 are all registered with thesame social network server computer 102 but form different socialnetworks as follows:

social network A: A-B-C-F-K

social network B: B-A-J-E-C

social network C: C-A-B-D-G-E

social network D: D-C

social network E: E-B-C-F

social network F: F-A-E-K-H

social network G: G-C

social network H: H-F-I

social network I: I-J-H

social network J: J-B-I

social network K: K-A-F

That is, member A has linked to members B, C, F and K to form the socialnetwork A. Similarly, member B has linked to members A, J, E and C toform the social network B, and so forth. Any information that A choosesto share in his social network A will be received by B, C, F and K.Similarly, any information that B chooses to share in his social networkB will be received by A, J, E and C, and so forth. Member A isconsidered to be the primary member of social network A since he is thecommon link. Similarly, member B is considered to be the primary memberof the social network B since he is the common link. Any member of asocial network who is not the primary member of that social network isconsidered to be a secondary member of that network. Each member of thesocial networking service will be a primary member to one social network(defined by the secondary members to whom he has linked), and eachmember is a secondary member to the social networks of those in hissocial network. Thus, member A is a secondary member to social networksB, C, F and K. Even though E is linked to B, E will not receiveinformation received by B from A since E is not linked to A directly.The term social network 104 is used herein to refer to any of the socialnetworks as described above.

At step 302 in the flowchart of FIG. 3, the social network 104 may beformed amongst its various members utilizing the social network servercomputer 102 which runs the social networking service. The members ofthe social network 104 communicate with the social network servercomputer 102 by using various member computers (not shown), which may bedesktop computers, laptop computers, tablets, smartphones, etc. Thesemember computers communicate with the social network server computer 102through a wired and/or wireless communications network(s) such as theInternet. Typically, each member will register or enroll with the socialnetwork server computer 102 and indicate their desire to join aparticular social network 104 by linking with at least one of theconstituent members of that social network. Any member may invite anyother member to join his network, typically by an email message as knownin the art. For example, member A has requested members B, C, F and K tolink to him, which they have all accepted. Non-members may join thenetwork if desired based on parameters established by the socialnetworking service. As the various members register with the socialnetwork server computer 102 and then link with each other, they will beable to interact with each other in various ways, including but notlimited to the interactions that will be described herein. Formation ofsocial networks utilizing social network server computers and servicesis well known in the art.

In addition, members may invite other members of the social networkingservice, as well as non-members of the service, by issuing a broadcastinvitation to groups of member and/or non-members as desired. This mayoccur over any type of medium, including but not limited to televisionor radio broadcasts, mass mail and email, etc. Invitees may accept theinvitation to join the member's social network and register with thenetwork. As part of the registration process, each member will provideto the social network server computer 102 a member profile 110 that willbe stored in the profile database 106 as shown in FIG. 1. The memberprofile 110 will include various pieces of information that areassociated with the member, including but not limited to personalinformation of the member such as income, age, location, occupation,shopping habits, and/or prior transaction history. Prior transactionhistory could include purchase transactions and the like. Additionally,the member profile 110 may include a listing of thereward/loyalty/incentive programs with which the member is registered.

At step 304, the social network server 102 computer generates a networkprofile 112 for each of the various social networks. Thus, the socialnetwork server computer 102 will generate network profile A for socialnetwork A, which will be based on the member profiles for members A, B,C, F and K. Similarly, the social network server computer 102 willgenerate network profile B for social network B, which will be based onthe member profiles for members B, A, J, E, and C, and so forth. Theterm network profile 112 is used herein to refer to any of the networkprofiles as described above. As such, each member will have anassociated network profile 112 that is based on the members in his ownsocial network.

Each network profile 112 is based on an analysis of the constituentmember profiles 110, and is stored in the profile database 106. Thenetwork profile is intended to be reflective of the information found ineach of the constituent member profiles, and will subsequently be usedin order to generate merchant incentives 108. The network profile 112may be generated in one or more of various manners.

In one embodiment, the network profile 112 may reflect an averageprofile of all of the constituent member profiles. Averages may easilybe generated for numerical data types; for example, the network profilemay contain the average member age, the average income level, averagehousehold size, average number of years married, average height, averageweight, average family size, etc. Data types that are not numerical maybe analyzed to provide a quasi-average indication as well. For example,if most members live in the northeast region of the United States but afew live in the south region, then the network profile for those membersmay simply indicate that the average member lives in the northeastregion.

Additionally (or in the alternative), the network profile 112 mayreflect an aggregate profile of all of the constituent member profiles.For example, the network profile may indicate that 55% of the membersare male and 45% are female, or it may indicate that 65% are adults and35% are teenagers, or it may indicate that 4,657 of the 5,550 membersgraduated from college and the rest did not, or it may indicate thatapproximately half the members live inside the United States and halflive outside the United States, etc.

Additionally (or in the alternative), the network profile 112 mayreflect a comparison of its constituent members with non-members of thatsocial network. For example, the network profile A for social network Amay indicate that 80% of its constituent members A, B, C, F and K workin the professional services industry compared to only 16% of thenon-members of social network A (D, E, G, H, I, J, and/or non-members ofthe social networking service).

Other mechanisms for generating a network profile that is in some wayrepresentative of some or all of the constituent member profiles is alsocontemplated by this invention.

After the network profile 112 has been generated at step 304, it isanalyzed at step 306 in order to be able to determine the value of theconstituent members of the social network in the aggregate to a merchantwho participates in the program. In this first embodiment as shown inFIG. 1, this network profile analysis is performed by the social networkserver computer 102. In a second embodiment described below, theanalysis is performed by an individual merchant computer 202 as shown inFIG. 2.

The network profile 112 is analyzed (by either the social network servercomputer 102 or the merchant computer(s) 202, as may be applicable) inorder to determine the constituent members' value to the merchant(s) andgenerate merchant incentives for distribution to the members of thesocial network. That is, by analyzing the properties of a networkprofile (and thus the properties of the associated social network),incentives may be generated that will drive traffic to the participatingmerchants in a meaningful way. Rather than attempting to target eachindividual network member as in prior art marketing and incentivecampaigns, this invention allows marketing to the social network membersin the aggregate. Since members of the social network 104 share commoninterests that are defined by the social network itself, this leads toan intelligent incentive generation hereto unattainable in the priorart.

This also provides an incentive for the members of that social networkto provide their data in their profiles and to allow usage of theirdata. For example, a network profile may indicate that members of theassociated social network have an average age of 27 years old and aregenerally interested in photography. This intelligence may be used bythe merchants to generate an appropriate merchant incentive such as acoupon for a discounted camera lens. If a given member of this socialnetwork has not previously indicated in his member profile an interestin photography but has interests related to photography such that he hasjoined this social network for other reasons (e.g. an interest in art),this member will receive the lens coupon by virtue of his membership inthe social network. Without this methodology, this member would not havebeen targeted for this incentive since he has not shown an interest inphotography, but his membership in the social network for other closelyrelated reasons enables him to receive the incentive. That is, thismember has value to the merchant that sells the lens because of hisassociation with the social network 104. This is just an example as tohow this information may be utilized.

At step 310, the merchant incentives that are generated as a function ofthe member profiles are distributed by the social network servercomputer 102 to the members of the social network 102. This may be donein various ways, including electronic downloads, email, text message,etc. The social network members may then use them at the variousmerchants as desired.

In the methodology described above, all constituent members of a socialnetwork (i.e. the primary member and all secondary members) wouldreceive the merchant incentives that are generated by the social networkserver computer 102 for that social network. For example, merchantincentives that are generated for social network A (by using the networkprofile A) would be distributed to all members of social network A (i.e.A, B, C, F, and K). A corollary to this is that member A would receivemerchant incentives that are generated using network profiles A, B, C, Fand K, since he is a primary member of social network A and a secondarymember of social networks B, C, F and K (since he is linked to thosemembers).

In another embodiment, merchant incentives that are generated based on agiven social network will only be distributed to the primary member ofthat social network. Thus, merchant incentives generated based onnetwork profile A would be distributed only to primary member A,merchant incentives generated based on network profile B would bedistributed only to primary member B, an so forth. In one example, themerchant incentive may increase in value as the number of secondarymembers of a given social network increases. This benefits the merchantsince it can collect data from many more members. This provides anincentive for members to invite many other members to join his socialnetwork since it would result in incentives having an increased value.

Optionally, a merchant profile(s) 114 may be used by the social networkserver computer 102 in addition to the network profile 112 in order togenerate the merchant incentives 108. The merchant profiles 114 areassociated with the various participating merchants and containinformation about the merchant that may be useful in generating themerchant incentives. The merchant profiles may 114 for example containguidelines and instructions to be used by the social network servercomputer 102, such as an instruction to generate incentives when thenetwork profile indicates a certain age demographic, or income level,etc. As such, the merchants have a level of control over the incentivegeneration process carried out by the social network server computer102.

In an alternative embodiment as shown in FIG. 2, the merchantcomputer(s) 202 execute the task of incentive generation rather than thesocial network server computer 102. In this embodiment, the processingis distributed amongst the merchants so that each merchant controls onan individual basis the incentive generation. The social network servercomputer 102 will generate the network profiles and provide them to eachparticipating merchant. Each merchant will then use the networkprofiles, along with a merchant profile internally stored on itsmerchant computer 202, in order to generate its own merchant incentives.These merchant incentives may then be distributed directly by themerchant computer 202 to the members of the social network (primary andsecondary or primary only), or alternatively they may be provided to thesocial network server computer so it may distribute the incentives as inthe first embodiment of FIG. 1.

In another embodiment of this invention, members of a social network maybe compensated for use of their data based upon parameters of the socialnetwork as provided through the network profile. As the network profileis generated, that information (and/or the information from theconstituent member profiles) may be provided to third party servicessuch that revenue is generated and received by the social networkingservice as consideration for use of that information. This would be doneafter being given permission by the members for use of theirinformation, whether individually (use by a third party of their ownmember profile) or in the aggregate (use by the third party of theirinformation in the network profile). The member would then share in thecompensation revenue received by the social networking service from thethird party. In one case, revenue may be shared with only the primarymember of the social network for use of the information from all of themembers of his social network. In another case, revenue may be sharedwith the primary member of the social network and the secondary membersof his social network for use of the information from all of the membersof his social network.

Third parties that may obtain member information from the various socialnetworks via the social network server computer include merchants,rewards issuers, payment processors, and the like. Each of these thirdparties may have different uses for the information, but all woulddesire this information and as a result are willing to providecompensation to the member(s) for use of that information.

1-38. (canceled)
 39. A method of operating a social network comprising asocial network server computer forming a social network comprising aplurality of members comprising a primary member linked to a pluralityof secondary members, each of said members registering with said socialnetwork server computer and providing a member profile, each of saidmember profiles comprising information associated with said member; thesocial network server computer receiving permission from at least one ofthe plurality of members for the social network server computer toprovide the member profile associated with the at least one member to athird party; only after receiving the permission from the at least oneof the plurality of members, then the social network server computerproviding the member profile associated with the at least one member tothe third party; the social network server computer receiving revenuefrom the third party in exchange for use of the member profile; and thesocial network server computer paying at least a portion of the revenuereceived from the third party to the at least one member which providedpermission for use of the member profile.
 40. The method of claim 39wherein the step of forming a social network comprises integrating withan existing social network of members.
 41. The method of claim 39wherein each of the member profiles comprises personal information ofthe member.
 42. The method of claim 39 wherein each of the memberprofiles comprises information on reward programs with which the memberis affiliated.
 43. The method of claim 39 wherein the step of forming,using a social network server computer, a social network comprising aplurality of members comprising a primary member linked to a pluralityof secondary members, comprises broadcasting to a multiplicity ofinvitees an invitation to join the social network.
 44. A system foroperating a social network comprising: a social network server computercomprising: a profile database comprising a plurality of memberprofiles, each of the member profiles comprising information associatedwith a member; processing circuitry programmed to: form a social networkcomprising a plurality of members comprising a primary member linked toa plurality of secondary members, each of said members registering withsaid social network server computer and providing the associated memberprofile, receive permission from at least one of the plurality ofmembers for the social network server computer to provide the memberprofile associated with the at least one member to a third party;provide, only after receiving the permission from the at least one ofthe plurality of members, the member profile associated with the atleast one member to the third party; receive revenue from the thirdparty in exchange for use of the member profile; and pay at least aportion of the revenue received from the third party to the at least onemember which provided permission in exchange for use of the memberprofile.
 45. The system of claim 44 wherein the processing circuitry ofthe social network server computer is programmed to form a socialnetwork with an existing social network of members.
 46. The system ofclaim 44 wherein each of the member profiles comprises personalinformation of the member.
 47. The system of claim 44 wherein each ofthe member profiles comprises information on reward programs with whichthe member is affiliated.
 48. The system of claim 44 wherein theprocessing circuitry is programmed to form a social network comprising aplurality of members comprising a primary member linked to a pluralityof secondary members by broadcasting to a multiplicity of invitees aninvitation to join the social network.